CAIN The Legend of Remnant
by Flame the Dark Knight
Summary: Remnant has never exactly been peaceful, but an ancient evil seeks to destroy all that humanity has built. What of the organization Shadouritchi? Life's last chance rests within the Earth, a secret long forgotten, and origins explored, the grand adventure has begun! Rated M for language and violence, as well as some darker stuff.
1. The Awakening

**A/N: Welcome to CAIN, the Legend of Remnant, these first four chapters I've had for a little bit, so don't expect me to update this fast, I hope you all enjoy.**

Schnee Dust Mine, North Vacuo

0613 hours, 3 years ago

Brian worked a good life, he was happily married, had a son and a good paying job, his only complaint was how tedious he found his job. Dust mining could be dangerous, so it required professionals to find it before mining, the process required someone to run a very slight amount of their Aura into the earth and waiting for a reaction. If this was messed up, you risked causing the collapse of the cave.

Brian ran his Aura in the cave he had been assigned to today. It was the deepest point in the mine, just dug the other day. Almost instantly Brian got a response, and one so large it almost knocked him on his feet. He made a call to Dr. Kritan, the head researcher there, and reported the anomaly. With the faintest amount of Aura he used, he shouldn't have gotten such a large reaction unless it was a massive vein of pure Dust.

Within minutes the Doctor arrived with a team of miners who he had dig where Brian directed, and after an hour of digging a miner brought his pick down on the wall, and the iron tool shattered. Kritan went to the wall and brushed dirt from it and revealed a large crystal of red Dust,

"Most fascinating, not even a hint of such a strike upon it! My good sir, I believe you've stumbled upon the find of the century! Would you mind search to see the size of it?"

"Not at all Doctor." Brian searched the area, to his astoundment, finding three more crystals of equal size. Several hours later they had uncovered large crystals of blue, orange and grey Dust. After all their hard work they had uncovered but a small segment of the crystals.

Dr. Kritan examined each crystal carefully. "There's clearly something special about these Dust crystals, I would have thought that pick would break this Dust. I really must contact President Schnee, and I'll be sure to put in a good word for you."

"Thank you Dr. Kritan." The two removed more dirt from the raw red Dust and uncovered the entire crystal, and were shocked at what they saw.

"Why… that's a person… maybe a little older than President Schnee's younger daughter." He had Medium blonde hair, minimal clothing, and seemed to be in a peaceful sleep. They inspected the other crystals, a young woman in the blue, and dark haired young men in the orange and grey.

The two scrambled for the phone by the minecart and as Kritan began to dial a number, an explosion rocked the mine, knocking the cart over. Kritan ran off up the mine while Brian stood, stunned. He heard gunshots and screams coming from higher up in the shafts.

He flipped the cart over and hid under it. Moments later, he heard footsteps and chatter amongst a few men.

"For Schnee Dust I'd say this was a really easy raid, they didn't even put up a fight. Boss are you sure this is the right place?"

A cold voice spoke. "It's the only place it could be, the last Temple supposedly once stood here, and as of late more pure Dust deposits have been found here than anywhere else. Besides, that's them…"

Brian assumed he meant the crystallized people. He got a whiff of too much dust in the air and sneezed. One of the men lifted the cart from on top of Brian. There was a sound of Thunder, and all fell silent.

* * *

Present Day

The Kingdom of Vale

Beacon,10:03

"Might I ask something of you Ozpin?"

"Anything Ironwood."

"Have you ever heard of the group known as Shadouritchi?"

"Weren't they the ones behind the assault on that Schnee Dust mine a few years back?" Ironwood nodded over the hologram.

"They're much smaller than the White Fang but no less dangerous. We recently shot down an airship that was stolen by them and found something… odd." Ozpin stopped pacing in his office.

"Odd? Care to specify?"

"For security reasons I can't exactly say, but I wouldn't know either way. Atlas is sending a team of transfer students and military guard to escort the package to you. If all goes to Schedule, they'll arrive tonight."

"All right then, is there anything else I should know?"

"Shadoritchi is completely shrouded in mystery, I barely know a thing about them, but I must warn you… They will not hesitate to kill those who stand in their way."

"Understood. Ozpin out." The hologram shut off and Ozpin took a long drag from his coffee, then sighed. Things had not been well in Remnant as of late, but then, it never truly was.

* * *

Vale Coastline:

18:37

Team DRCE consisted of four members as most teams did. Danielle and her twin brother Rowan, Cobalt and Etra. Their leader stood at the front of the airship, looking down at the sea below, wondering what life lurked in the depths and pondering life in general. Her brother walked up next to her.

"I always wondered what it was like past Atlas, I've got a feeling this is going to be a lot of fun." He got no response. "They're serving your favorite kind of pie in the dining hall." Nothing. "I have a Dangerous disease and I'll die before we get home." Rowan failed to get any attention from his sister with anything so decided to try something new. "Etra and I have a thing and we threw your gunblade off the ship."

Rowan got the attention he was looking for and soon found himself holding onto the ship's railing. "Give me a reason to spare you."

"I didn't actually do it! You really zoned out again and I wanted you to listen!" Danielle helped her brother up and got him back on the deck.

"Idiot…" She sighed and looked at the coast that was now in sight. "Get your stuff and make sure Etra and Cobalt are ready, we'll be landing soon." As the ship rocketed along, Beacon came into view and the ship began to descend. Danielle grabbed her things and made for the cargo bay, where an important item to be delivered to the headmaster. The team gathered by the massive crate and the cargo door opened up, creating a ramp for the package.

"Welcome," said a very formal looking man, "I am Professor Ozpin, the Headmaster here at Beacon. I assume that crate is the package that Ironwood spoke of?"

"Yes sir," said Danielle, "We're Team DRCE, the transfer stude…" The leader of the team didn't get to finish her sentence. A red and black object came flying through the sky hitting her and sending her flying. The team instinctively drew their weapons. Rowan's Lance, Cobalt's Grenade Launcher and Etra's Katana all pointed at what hit their leader, a girl perhaps a year or two younger than they were.

"At ease students, this is another student here at Beacon, Ms. Ruby Rose, the leader of team RWBY." Her team members ran up to her, and the leader began laughing with the blonde one about how well the "man-cannon" worked.

"Sorry about that…" The resident Team looked at the giant crate, curious as to what was inside. "What's in the box?"

"I'm not quite sure girls, but, I believe that now would be a good time to tell you that you and Team JNPR have detention for the… catapult experiments." A middle aged woman handed them slips that read, Tomorrow; After Class. She snapped her fingers and eight metal bands flew in the air, four attaching to an arm of each member of Team RWBY, and the others flying towards another location, probably to the members of this Team JNPR.

The team left for their dorm and DRCE escorted Ozpin and the crate to an underground lab. "Shall we take a look?" The team nodded and pried the crate open. Inside were four large Dust crystals, looking into one, they saw what was so odd, inside each, a person seemed to slumber.

"What the… how could this have happened? Professor?"

"I'm not quite sure what this is… this will take some time to decipher… hmm…" Each was moved onto a table where Ozpin examined them closer. He placed his hand on one and ran a bit of his Aura through it. "Odd… very odd indeed… But I suppose this mystery will have to wait until tomorrow, come children. I must show you what I can of the school before we lose the last of daylight." They left the lab and shut the lights off leaving the Crystals in the dark and all stayed silent.

Deep in the night not a thing stirred at the Academy, but through the catacombs that led to the lab, there was a sort of pressure in the air. The red Dust shard glowed a dark red, which grew brighter and brighter, then went dark. The young man inside opened his eyes and the crystal shattered, then was absorbed into the boy. He looked himself over, not quite sure who, or what he even was. He stood rather shakily as he hadn't moved at all in a thousand years, though his muscles had been perfectly preserved. He tried to remember something, anything, but all he got were two names, his own, and the other seemed to inspire dread when it came to mind. He looked to the other shards which had started to glow as well, and he hoped dearly that they knew more than he.


	2. Day One, New beginings

_Ding Dong Ding Dong!_

The first day in Beacon was finally over, the first few classes were boring but DRCE was most fond of the battle class, where they destroyed team CRDL. Well, Etra did most of it the others really just stood around bored. The team had split off to do their own things, when each received a call from Ozpin to come to the lab. They made haste and found JNPR and RWBY (who they had fully been acquainted with earlier in the day) waiting with Ozpin.

"DRCE glad you could join us, I must show you something." On the monitor security footage dated from midnight last night showed the dust crystals glowing and the people inside emerging one by one. Rowan noticed how a few of the women in the room had the slightest blush watching the video, including his sister. "We had to replace the doors today, and the video cuts out in a moment, we're not sure how but they melted through three inches of iron. We've gotten reports of stolen clothing, and we found one student encased in a block of ice."

"Weiss, was that you?" Team RWBY looked to their white haired member.

"No! Are you kidding?!"

"Quiet!" Everyone jumped when Danielle silenced the room. "Professor, you want us to find them right?"

"Finding them isn't a problem, all of the School uniforms have a tracking devices in them, we've positioned them in a rather unfortunate place, the Emerald forest. It's Grimm infested, and we'll need you to bring them back. Team RWBY, Team JNPR, your detentions have been lifted."

"Got it. We're all ready to ship out any time."

"Good, we leave now then." In a flash the teams were freefalling into the woodland, each team given a tracker to find the missing people.

"All right, we lucked out everyone, we're right on top of one right now. Fan out and find him or her." DRCE spread about the clearing not seeing any sign of anybody. Snap! The team turned to see a blonde boy their age make a run for it. Etra, the fastest in the group, gave chase with the others behind her. Rowan took a shortcut and charged the blonde teen from the side, the latter seeing him and kicking him into his teammate and through a few trees.

"Ow!"

"God that hurt!" As the blonde ran off again, the team saw him breathe fire in a long wave, creating a wall of flame. "What was that? Did I just see a guy breath fire?!" Etra winced, feeling a cracked rib or two, while Rowan had broken ribs, a cracked collarbone and a dislocated shoulder.

"Thank God for Aura, I don't think we'd take as little as we did." Cobalt and Danielle patched the two of their teammates up. As they put Rowan's shoulder back in place, his yelp was drowned out by an extremely loud thunderclap.

"Looks like the others have had some encounters of their own, and it looks like all the blips on the tracker are meeting up in one spot."

"Where?" Cobalt helped Etra up.

"Some old Ruins, come on, it's not to far from here."

The team set out as soon as the flames died out and everyone had their weapons ready. "... Hey, do you feel that?"

"What?"

"The air feels heavy… like how that lab was when these guys were crystallized…" They arrived in the ruins the same time as the other teams, each with their share of wounded. The four escapees stood by the ruins, trying to catch their breaths.

"What do you people want from us," demanded the girl.

"We want to know who you are," said the red haired Pyrrha, "We just want you to come back with us!" The group backed off. Thump!...Thump!...Thump!Thump!Thump!

Groooooooaaaah!

Everyone paused as a large black Grimm in the form of an elephant charging the ruins, destroying everything in its path. The Teams moved to attack it, but were too heavily wounded to do anything to stop it. It charged forward and was grabbed by the tusks by the blonde boy, who almost stopped the charge. "What is this thing?"

"You mean you don't know what a Grimm is?"

"No, I don't! But how do I kill it?"

"I don't know! These ones are normally too dangerous for us to fight!" The hunters who could still fight fired as many round as they could, but didn't visibly hurt the beast. The Grimm threw the blond off from his tusks and started rampaging again. The blonde tried his fire on it to no avail, the girl had ice, the shorter dark haired boy lightning, and the tallest dark haired boy was somehow manipulating shadows to strike the Grimm. Even with their efforts, the monster didn't go down, it's armor incredibly hard.

"Damn it! I need a weapon! One of you toss me yours!" For most of the hunters, this really clicked, these people didn't know what a Grimm was, nor did they know weapons mostly functioned only for their creators. Yang came from the side and punched the monster in the neck, snapping it and killing the monster.

Thump!Thump!Thump!Thump!

"Oh no… these things travel in packs…" They were terrified with every intent on running, but were too exhausted to do so. Three more.

"Oh God…" The same thought ran through all of the rogue's heads, 'something to fight with, something I can use to save everyone'. In a bright flash large dust crystals formed in front of them. Each rogue instinctively stuck their arms inside, the dust flowing like water, and grabbed hold of something, causing the dust to shatter.

"These'll work." The blonde held an incredibly large sword, from the large handle, a massive blade coming from each side and a circular crest connecting the blades. The girl held a pair of combat knives, and the tallest boy, a broadsword, the last one held a gleaming halberd.

"Okay, this is new," said Rowan, "And I'm hoping just a trippy dream."

"See you guys on the other side," said the blonde. He held his sword above his head and spun it with ease, then brought it down on the dead Grimm, slicing its tusks off with ease. "This'll definitely work." He charged the center Grimm, slashing off leg. The one with the halberd stabbed the right one in the eye, then pole vaulted with it onto its back. The girl and boy with the broadsword slashed the left one's tendons, causing it to topple, then the broadsword morphed into a large gun, firing through the ribcage, and the round exploding, incinerating the Grimm.

The boy with the halberd seemed to be adding his power to his weapon, and for a moment, its axe blade grew massive, and he used it to decapitate the monster. Lastly, as the three legged Grimm made a limp charge at him, the blonde spun his sword around and stabbed the Grimm at the bottom of its head, then ripped it out going upwards, splitting its head in half. The Grimm were decimated and Ozpin looked down from a descending airship, seeing how dangerous these people were.

* * *

Two hours later:

Medical ward and laboratory

The rogues were forcibly cuffed as to prevent them from harming anybody, though everyone in the room knew they could be broken at any time. About half of the hunters and huntresses who went on the mission were in hospital beds.

Ozpin returned with results from tests he'd given the four who came from that came from the crystals, each of which had given their names. The blonde was Connor, the girl was Ivy, the shorter dark haired boy was Adam and the last was Nick.

"Interesting, though you have slept for many years, you still seem to have learned complex information…" Ozpin flipped through the scores. "Ms. Schnee, it seems two of them actually beat your score on this exam." He showed which test it was to which they all showed shock, Weiss was the only one in their whole class who got a grade higher than 80% on this test, Adam had an 87 and Ivy had 84, and one upped Weiss there. The other scores were 81 and 79.

"N-no… No!"

"What's her problem," asked Ivy.

"You just stole her thunder," said Ruby, "I don't think she can handle it."

"If you'll excuse me, I really must continue. After examining video taken from the trackers, I seen how dangerous you are." He showed video of Connor breathing fire and using his super strength, Adam calling down a lightning bolt to strike JNPR and powering up his weapon earlier. "It seems that in addition to your semblances, you've taken in power from the Dust that sealed you."

"Sorry about freezing that kid earlier," said Ivy. Ozpin resumed, showing Ivy moving at extreme speeds fighting the Goliaths, Nick trapping team RWBY in an odd slow motion field with his semblance, and using light and shadows to attack.

"After analyzing your weapons, we've also determined that they are made of an extremely rare and hard material called Mytherian iron,and if I'm not mistaken, the only other weapons made of that material here at Beacon are Mr. Jaune Arc's Crocea Mors and Ms Etra Chlorran's Masamune. Without any combat training, you've severely wounded half of the students we sent after you, and based off of the DNA and carbon samples we took from your bodies; the four of you are about 900 years old."

"...We don't have anywhere to go," muttered Connor, "I was hoping we had some relatives to clear things up, but now that I've heard that…"

"My apologies. Now you say you remember but one thing from your pasts aside from your names?"

"Hell Kaiser Wyvern," they said in unison, each showing a slight sign of dread.

"None of us are quite sure what it is… but from what we can gather from the feelings it gives us, it was probably an ancient horror."

"Well… seeing as you have no place to go, how would you four feel about coming to school here?" The group pondered it for a while, then nodded. "Well then, as a bit of an unofficial inauguration, I pronounce the four of you Team CAIN, and based on what I've seen in the field, Connor, you will lead them into whatever adventures you may face." With that, Team CAIN was born, unaware of what they would face, and unaware of what was happening elsewhere in Remnant…

* * *

Shadouritchi HQ

Sometime late that night:

"Master Shroud?" The second in command of Shadouritchi called into the shadows. He kneeled down in his suit of dark armor.

A pair of glowing red eyes appeared on the wall. "What is it Shade?"

"The sealed have fallen into the hands of Ozpin of Beacon."

"Troublesome, but not of any concern, the Wyvern will awaken no matter what. Besides, this is for the better, they need to be at full power like you and the others. Go to Beacon, see where they're at and report back to me."

"Yes my master." Shade dialed up a number on his phone. "Dusk, the Sealed that were dug up a few years ago have finally awoken, get Hecate and Widow, we're going to Beacon." Shade hung up and looked out the window through his helm. "Brother, Sister… I'll be coming for you, it's almost time for a family reunion."


	3. Family Reunion, a Shade of Darkness

"I don't know what things used to be like before but, things have gone to hell," said Nick. The Team walked through the halls after leaving history class and to combat training.

"Maybe," said Adam, who pulled out his folded weapon, "You know how these people name their weapons? Did you guys get around to naming yours?"

Ivy pulled one of her knives out. "I'm calling them Comet Lily."

"I'm calling my halberd Thundercracker, Connor?"

"It's Meteor Lotus, and Nick calls his Judgement Grimoire."

"Cool, but I don't think they'll let us use our weapons after we hospitalized six people." Ivy slammed her locker shut and sheathed her knives.

"Aww… I didn't even get to use my halberds gun form."

"None of the students here know about yesterday, if we don't fight it's because of that fight Connor got into at lunch."

"Hey that Cardin guy was an ass to everyone, he had it coming, besides, modern medicine took care of the Teams that went after us real well. They didn't even have bandages on."

"Yeah but you didn't kick them to the other side of campus. And those two you apparently kicked into a few trees? They're actually still recovering with a few wounds, we just haven't shared any classes with them for you to see."

"Then how do you know Nick?"

"While you sent Cardin and his lackeys flying, we were talking to Team DRCE."

"Okay fine."

"But I'm sure you'll be good friends with Nora, apparently JNPR wanted to break Cardin's legs." The team walked into class, seeing most of the class staring at them, and CRDL in full body casts.

"Ah, Team CAIN, glad you could finally join us," said Professor Goodwitch, "Take your seats next to Team CRDL." As they sat Connor stifled a laugh as he heard muffled screams next to them.

"You are an awful human being," stifled his partner.

"Then why are you laughing if you're so good Adam?"

"Never said I was." They cut it out and looked to their teacher.

"Today each Team will be paired with another, and you'll all be sent on a mission together with an older student, be advised, these missions can range from deliveries to military Grimm control operation, also, the older student accompanying you will also serve as your mentor for a large part of your time here at Beacon. Team RWBY, you're with JNPR…" She went on for a while longer. "Lastly Team DRCE is with Team CAIN, and your senior is Edge Fullhelm." The other students who had been at Beacon longer knew who this was, though a second year student, Edge could stand with the best hunters. When he first joined Beacon, he had to be teamed with older students, who were the only ones who could best him. The only problem that people had with him was that he was a bit of a womanizer, well, more than a bit, the only reason he hadn't been killed was because it was too hard to do so.

"Ok I'm guessing that's a good thing. So where do we meet up with this, Edge?" There was an unnoticeable sound behind them, fainter than a leaf falling onto the ground.

"Sup?" The team almost jumped out of their seats, and looked behind them to see a young man in black clothes, a gray muffler and with jet black hair crouched on the desks above them looking down on them, and the teams sitting there equally surprised. "I'm Edge, I'll be your mentor."

"Okay… so what are we doing?"

"Good question blondie, I chose a mission to protect a government official returning from his home village from assassins!"

"...Okay…"

"Relax! I doubt they'd have that on the request board if the risk factor wasn't low, he's a minor official so the job ranking is barely a C rank."

"Phew… That's relieving."

"Alright then, you should get all the things you'll need and dress out of your uniforms, then meet me out in the courtyard," he looked a row further down to Team DRCE, "You too." In a puff of smoke he was gone leaving the classroom silent.

1 hour later…

"I am really liking the outfits," said Ivy. She wore pale blue garments similar to that of Yang, a steel belt at her waist holding her knives, and a black logo of a crystal of ice with pillars of ice surrounding it at her shoulder.

"Agreed." Adam wore a white jacket over a black T-shirt and wore white slacks, his logo was a black pulsar over his heart. Thundercracker was slung on his back in its holster. Connor wore a red trench coat with black shoulders, combat boots and a black suit, on which was a skull wreathed in flame. Meteor Lotus was in its folded form on his back. Lastly, Nick wore a green cloak over tan clothing, his logo a conjoined sun and moon, all attire similar to that of rangers, the woodland watchmen of the world.

"Hey! Over here!" DRCE were glad to finally be able to be out of their uniforms and into their more regular clothes.

"Oh hey… sorry about yesterday again."

"Relax," said Rowan, "It's all good here, I just wish you would save a couple of Cardin's crew for me."

"In all honesty, they're weak, which is why they get satisfaction picking on others." Rowan nodded and secured his lance to its holster, he wore light armor and camouflage perfect for the fall weather, his twin sister wearing almost a dress. It had no sleeves and there was a split over her left leg so she could still be agile and fast, on her belt she kept ammunition and other miscellaneous tools.

"In the village where I come from honor is most important," said Cobalt, "Those four would be tried and banished, all races are accepted there, nobody cares if you're a faunus or human, as you can imagine, I like it there." Team CAIN hadn't noticed it before, but in the way she would mess up her hair, you couldn't see the cat ears, or her tail that she wrapped around her waist most of the time, but today she straightened her hair out. She wore gold plating over a blue Kenpo Gi and combat skirt, simple, but effective.

"It's like that where I'm from too," said Etra, "My master was a faunus, and gave me this sword before passing away as his master had done for him." The blade Masamune was, for lack of a better word, perfect, its weighting was balanced so she could balance the blade on its tip with ease while wearing her gloves. At free period, the team had seen it cut through solid steel and concrete in a single slash. Aside from her sword, Etra kept a variety of knives hidden and sheathed about at all times, which Rowan commented about being awful at airport security. She wore a cloak, metal armor here and there over a somewhat militaristic garb, and her extremely light brown hair was brushed mostly to her left, covering her eye.

"Hey sis," said Rowan, "You know if our parents were here, they would really have it out on how skimpy your clothes are." The men on Team CAIN looked her down, and when she saw the slightest bit of blush in their faces, she tried cutting their heads off.

"He's right you know." The teams looked up and saw Edge sitting on the arch above them. "Not that I mind, I'm rather enjoying the view."

Rowan had to hold Danielle back again. "Bastard! Get down here! I'll cut you!" Edge smirked from behind his muffler and jumped down.

"Take a try." She pulled her gunblade and slashed at Edge in quick succession, though he easily ducked and sidestepped, then caught the blade with his hand. "Tut tut, you're sloppy." Danielle threw a punch at him, though he easily caught it. She tried attacking him a few more times, but soon tired out. Edge looked the groups over and sighed. "You guys are going to take a while, CAIN, the staff that holds up the world, and DRCE, the Dragon that protects it. Every team's name has some significance, I just hope I can get you to live up to live up to yours."

Womanizer he was, though Connor and the others also found him poetic. Edge looked to Cobalt. "I thought I smelled cat."

Team RWBY stopped to see how things were going on with the new teams, Blake was giving him a look that said 'choose your next words carefully'.

"Relax I'm not some anti-faunus ass. I'm actually half faunus, on my father's side, so about as subtle of a faunus as you'll ever meet." He pulled down his muffler and showed off his teeth. To be more accurate, they were fangs. "That's the only part that really shows, plus I have a great sense of smell, for example…" He took a whiff of the air, then looked at both Blake and Cobalt. "The two of you had salmon and tuna for lunch. And you stepped in something yesterday Blake."

"You got all that?"

"And then some," Edge gave the faintest nod to Blake, aware of her status as a faunus. "We should go, ladies, you mind telling Carrie I said hi?"

"Sure." As they walked off, Edge snuck a quick look at them and led the others to the rendezvous point, where they relieved the group that was previously watching over the senator.

"Alright everyone, DRCE, you've got point, CAIN, you're centered with the carriage, I'll keep watch with the carriage. It's a short trip to the village, but we'll have to pass through the Treeshroud forest." He pulled out a map and pointed to their destination. "As the name suggests, the trees here are tall and broad, there'll be plenty of places to hide, so stay on guard."

"Yes sir." The party made their way into the woodland, hoping for an uneventful experience. Adam and Rowan walked in the middle ground between their two teams.

"Hey, about that thing with your sister…"

"It's fine." His expression briefly changed. "But if you do it again, I'll tear you limb from limb, same goes for your squadmates."

"Alright, seems fair. Hey, look up there." Adam pointed out a pair of small Nevermore in the sky. "I've got this." He grabbed his folded up Halberd, which morphed into a carbine.

"I'll take the other one."

"With a lance? Okay suit yourself." Rowan's lance changed into a longbow. He pulled an arrow from inside his vest and notched it. He held still for a moment then released it, flying through one side of the Grimm's head and out the other.

"Beat that." Adam took aim and put a bullet between the eyes of the Nevermore that swooped down towards them. They walked past the dissolving corpses that Connor easily threw to the side.

"Suck it evil death pigeons." The two holstered their weapons and clustered with the others like Edge told them to, in case there were more Grimm around.

"How far do you think we've come Edge?"

"We're almost out Nick, just a little bit further, though it'll be dark by the time we get home so we'll grab some food in the village." They treked onward until they heard barking, which caused Cobalt to comically jump into Edge's arms.

"You do do realize you just went from one dog to another right?" Cobalt blinked and looked to who was holding her, taking notice of the grin hidden by his muffler. She jumped onto the ground, her ears twitching, possibly from anger or listening for whatever it was. A couple of small dogs came from the bushes, playing together. Several members of the group soon were distracted by them, and how friendly they were. Even the quiet and reserved Etra couldn't help but smile.

"They don't seem to have collars or anything." Nick checked them for identification.

"Must be strays," said Danielle, "Why don't we keep them, you know… as team mascots?"

"A little sudden, but I don't see why not. Team RWBY has a dog." Etra pulled a few snacks out and gave them to the dosim

"Yeah, Zwei, I saw him with them in the medical bay yesterday." The bigger of the two was male, and had an light orange and white coat, the other was female and looked strikingly similar to Zwei.

"Hey guys," said Ivy, "Don't they seem, familiar to you?"

"Hm…"

"Now that you say it…" Each member of Team CAIN seemed to have a pinch in their heads, like something was there, but they couldn't get to it.

"I'm calling them Percy and Yuki, I don't know why," said Adam, "But it just seems right." The others agreed with him.

Nick looked on ahead. "Oh hey, a clearing up ahead." Cobalt, moved faster than the others, as she wasn't quite comfortable with the dogs. As she was about to step into the clearing, Edge grabbed her by the tail and pulled her back with a quick jerk.

"That hurt you ass!" Edge pulled a kunai from one of his pocket while Cobalt caressed her tail.

"You almost set off a tripwire in your recklessness." He had everyone take a step back and threw his knife, cutting through the small wire. Inside the trunks of trees, machine guns that were hidden inside went off.

"Uh… Thanks Edge."

"Never mind that, just where are the people who set it up?"

"That'd be me." Out of the trees was a single man holding a minigun, and then more came from the trees and bushes with swords and smaller guns.

"Mercs, Dammit. I'll take the big guy, you guys get the others." He stared down the man with the minigun, and rushed him as he was about to open fire. Edge hit the mercenary with a swift uppercut with one hand, and twirled a pair of kunai in his other. He stabbed the merc's arm that held the minigun, which made the merc drop his gun.

With his functioning arm, the mercenary pulled a knife and tried stabbing Edge, though stopped midway. "What the hell are those?!" He was covered by black marks that constricted his muscles, stopping him in his tracks.

"That, is my semblance, ninjutsu, an art passed through my family for generations. This is one of my favorite techniques, Shadow Bind. Now tell me, who are you working for?" The merc struggled and flipped Edge off, though all he got was a cold stare, and the shadows constricted his throat. "Who do you work for?!"

The merc looked into Edge's eyes, and saw nothing but a cold stare he felt blood trickle down his face where the shadows made a deep cut, the only thought that ran through his head was fear. Sheer terror enveloped the mercenary, and he broke, mind and all.

* * *

Vale; Several hours later:

"Shade, I just got word, the others stopped our kidnapping attempt."

"Relax Dusk, he may have had a large ransom, but that money was just for a cushion, that gold and dust that we raided from mines is more than enough. The others will be back soon, try to get their attention."

Widow, who wore a scarf covering most of her head, a vest, and combat boots wore a wicked grin under her scarf. Widow pulled her weapon, a blade with multiple handles built in on the opposite side of the blade, allowing her to use it in almost any way she felt. "Ah, this is the fun part."

"Wreak Havok." The other team members leapt off their pillars and spread across the city. Shade looked abroad and saw Team RWBY and JNPR returning from their mission. "You'll do fine." He jumped down and drew his twin swords. "But how many do I spare?"

* * *

Moments later:

While they found Edge cold and dark sometimes, it was nowhere near the feeling they had when they saw half of Vale ablaze. "How did this happen?!" Edge led the Teams in a mad dash for the square, where a man in dark armor fought Teams RWBY and JNPR. Only two still stood, Carrie, their mentor, and Ruby. Carrie parried against the man's dual blades, though in a moment her sword shattered, and the man slashed her throat. In a desperate attempt, Ruby slashed at him with Crescent Rose, though he blocked it with his gauntlet without so much of a scratch. He pulled her towards him with her scythe, and ran Ruby through with one of his swords just below the ribcage.

"Come here you bastard!" Edge slashed at the armored man with his kunai, the latter parrying then wagging his finger.

"Come and get me." He ran off at incredible speed. Edge rushed to Carrie's side.

"Carrie…" Edge looked into her eyes and she held her hand to his face. Her arm went limp, and her eyes went blank. Edge closed her eyes and looked to the others. Nick used his semblance and put the wounded in stasis so they wouldn't bleed out. "DRCE, get these kids help, CAIN, we're going to hunt this bastard to the pits of hell." Percy and Yuki stayed with DRCE, though gave a slight whimper seeing CAIN and Edge leave.

"But sir…" Ivy looked to the others with concern in her eyes.

"I've read your files, and Carrie's sword shouldn't have broken so easily like that. I'll need your help bringing this guy in. Your Mythyrian Iron weapons will probably be the only things that can really hurt him."

"Okay…" Ivy and the others saw something in his eyes, not just rage, but bloodlust.

They ran down the street where they'd seen the man run and came to the archway where they'd met with team DRCE earlier in the day.

Atop the arch stood four people in assorted armor and other garbs. The man who'd slain Carrie stood on the leftmost position. "Like I said, I found them. Though I hadn't expected ninja there to join us. Hecate?" He looked to a person wearing a cloak and mask.

Hecate nodded, and with a slight movement of the hand, flung Edge into a building, rendering him unconscious, but not dead. Nick drew his sword. "Who the hell are you?!"

"Odd… They don't remember us yet. At least they should be able to recognize our voices." The tallest stood between Hecate and another woman, on his back, a colossal sword no normal man could wield. He removed his helm Connor and his team looked on his face, and their heads got a rush of memories. "I'm Dusk, wielder of the sword Dragonkiller, gladiator to the Earth lord Gaia." He seemed but a little older than the members of Team CAIN, nor were any of his comrades any older based on their voices.

Hecate removed the mask, showing herself to be a woman. She had scarlet hair and cold eyes, though seemed to have been a kind person at some point. "Hecate, executioner to Tempest the wind god, and this, is the Dreadscythe." It seemed as though she held the Grim Reaper's scythe, negative Aura seemed to flow from it, as did all of their weapons.

"Widow, assassin to the Water lord Mariner, and my weapon, Abyss Fang." Each face brought back more memories, some good, some bad.

"You know," said the man who still wore his helm, "It really makes me angry that of all people you forgot me!" He vented his rage my stomping down on the arch he stood on, shattering it. "My own siblings! I am Shade, Dark Knight of the lord of disaster, Umbra, the wielder of Lightkiller and Caladbolg! Adam… Ivy… I'm also your brother." His helm dissolved in light, his face was almost identical to Adam, though colder and older.

With the final trigger, everything poured back into their heads, who they were, where they grew up, and most importantly why they were rush of information wracked in their minds, and the four came close to passing out. "I serve Shroud now, as do the deities, aside from the ones you serve. Don't you understand? Once our task is complete, we'll be recalled back to their world, but say Shroud has power and the Wyvern serves him? We never go back! Never again must I…" Shade trailed off, then turned to his siblings and held each by the throat. "The four of you are weak, when you're as strong as I, come and fight me, fight all of us. Until then, I'll leave you with minor wounds." He threw them into walls and materialized his helm. "Come, it's time for us to leave." For team CAIN, everything went black, all became nothing, and everything seemed lost.


	4. Recovery, Truth and Secrets

2 weeks later…

Connor's POV:

We woke with a start, each of us. Since our encounter with Shade, we'd apparently been comatose. By regulations, we wheeled around the infirmary when we wanted to leave our room though we were soon able to walk. The flood of memories I felt was… painful to say the least, but my team and I got together to compare notes.

"Let's start off with the small stuff and work our way up, okay?" We nodded to Nick's suggestion.

"Hmm… so I'm apparently related to Shade and Ivy, and Connor, you were dating Ivy."

"Yeah… Ivy, you and Hecate were good friends, and so was Widow. Nick, your Father was a ranger but was killed by a Beowulf after slaying the rest of the pack. Adam, those dogs you named, you named them that because that's the name of the dogs we found in the woods as kids."

"Shade cared for them as much as us, he lost his dog Wilhelm when it saved him from a Beowulf by tackling it off a cliff."

"Our village burned down when raiders attacked from the southern lands. We were the only ones to live alongside Shade and the others." We all felt down with this memory, we were now onto the big stuff.

"The Wyvern, it appeared before us and took us to Mythyria, the world of the gods."

"That's right sis, that's also where the metal for our weapons comes from, and they were other deposits in this world due to an age old war."

"They came to peace long before we got there, but something bothers me." I looked to Nick, who was the wisest of our group. "I remember the deities that Shade and Co. came into service of having different names. And Shade served Sanctum the God of light not the god of disasters."

"I can only imagine when they were corrupted by Shroud, they lost their sense of self."

Adam thought hard for a moment. "We met Shroud, the god of Darkness, he may have been weird, but in no way was he evil then."

"Power corrupts."

"He'd been around for a few thousand years, I don't think that's why, but that's what we'll have to go with."

"The Wyvern was a sovereign to the Elemental Lords, we were tied to it through our souls. When Shroud corrupted my brother…"

"He corrupted the beast, with four parts of the Wyvern corrupt, It was loosed onto the world, and killed a lot of people and was stopped by us, how?"

"Hm… before the other lords were corrupt, they sealed Shade and the others in dust crystals, our masters did the same for us."

"Shade wasn't evil when we went out for a few hundred years though." We looked to Adam, who sounded off. "He was driven to the brink of insanity, he couldn't sleep, said something about a cycle."

"Hmmmm…"

"The only other thing coming to mind was that we forged a chain of souls taken by the Wyvern, so when we were sealed it would be sealed as well, and bound with those."

"If we're here, then that means the chain is weakening." I hated being the bearer of bad news, but we all knew that it had to be said.

"So what do we do?" We sat in silence for a few minutes thinking.

"I don't know, but Shade's right, we have gotten weak. We need to get stronger if we plan to face them again."

"I think we should see how RWBY and the others are doing, they were at death's door last we saw them." We were all in agreement. As we headed to the recovery ward, several thoughts rushed through my head, should we tell them what we know? Will they even accept us or will we be rejected? Did they even make it? How many people did Shade alone kill? Hecate? Dusk? Widow?

Even with modern medicine, the wounded still had a week of physical therapy and other treatments before they could go out into the field again. "How are all you holding up?"

Ruby put her hand where she'd been run through. "I'm alive, and so are my friends, so I'd say we're doing well." The others seemed to be doing well, both physically and mentally.

"How many did those people-"

"Kill?" I turned and saw Edge in the doorway, and DRCE behind him. "Including Carrie, 23 people. Half by the same guy who killed her."

I shivered at this thought but I soon had to know something. "How did you know her, who was she to you?"

I saw tears come from Edge's eyes. "I spent most of my childhood in an orphanage, as did she. My whole village was destroyed in a single night by… monsters, not Grimm, but, something demonic. We grew up together, when I boasted how I'd be a hunter to the kids with parents, they persecuted me for being part faunus and having no family. I kinda went into a rut…" He paused for a moment. "But she saved me, so we made an oath, to someday be the best, the best ever!" He smiled and wiped his eyes.

"I'm so sorry."

"It's okay." I felt it wasn't, especially knowing my partner and my girlfriend were related to Carrie's killer.

"We didn't do jack to that Sha-" I stopped myself from saying his name. "Shady guy or his co-workers, we need to get up to their level, and fast."

"Agreed."

"I couldn't help but overhear your tale, Mr. Fullhelm. I've just received dire news from Ironwood in Atlas, there has been an attack on a small village by… monsters."

Edge stared straight into Ozpin's eyes. "Monsters? Pitch black, seemed to be made of sludge, different forms, and control over Grimm?"

Ozpin seemed both surprised and serious. "Ironwood's description exactly. What can you tell us about them?"

The ninja took his shirt off, I noticed blush on people all around the room, even Etra and Cobalt. I couldn't help but wonder how these people reacted to a security video with my companions and I escaping the laboratory when we first woke up. "Aside from two weeks ago, I've only been close to dying twice, once was when I snuck into the girl's hot spring, the other time…" On his back was a large scar that ran from his right shoulder to left hip.

"Whoa…"

"When my home was annihilated, those things attacked. At first it may not seem like they're armed, but they create weapons from their own essence. They are very, hard to kill, if you cut of their limbs, they regrow, if it's not a fatal hit, they are unaffected. There was only one exception." He reached into his vest and pulled out a scroll with writing, a foreign language most wouldn't understand, Mythyrian runes. I could read them, they said in basic; Paeoniis' Gift.

"Hey guys," I whispered. They nodded slightly, they could read it too.

"Unleash, Lightray Hope." He held a giant sword, rivaling even Dusk's Dragonkiller. It was blue in the center of the blade, and silver outwards. Its guard bent back towards the handle, giving it the appearance of angelic wings. "Lightray Hope, like my semblance, passed down through my family through the generations, as powerful as it is, It's a bit too flashy for a ninja like myself. Anyways, it's over a thousand years old, made of Mythyrian Iron, and ripped through those demons much easier than with a normal weapon."

I knew why, Mythyrian Iron contained power from the lords of Mythyria, mostly it's queen, Paeoniis, the goddess of order and life, of course it would work well against demons. "Interesting, I'll look further into this. Keep training, if what I fear may happen comes to fruition, everyone will need to be at full strength."

* * *

That night:

Rowan had swapped rooms with Ivy and bunked with us, since some of the women felt a little, uncomfortable. Our new roommate was snoring away, which was probably the main reason the women traded roommates. "Zzzzzz… Zzzzzzz… ZZZZzzzzzz…" I decided I couldn't deal with it so I climbed up onto the roof of the dorms and just sat for a while.

"Hey, Connor." Ivy sat next to me as soon as she leapt up to where I was. "Can't sleep either?"

"Yeah, partly because Rowan snores, partly because I can't stop thinking about whether or not we tell them what we know."

"It's a hard choice," said Adam, who joined us moments later.

"They could think of us as monsters or things to be experimented on," Nick joined in as well.

"So we're all here huh?"

"Yeah, remember when we would go do this on the gates of town when we were kids?"

"Yep, good times," Nick stared up into the midnight sky and pointed to a certain star. "Before my father died, he showed us how to navigate using the stars, remember?"

"Mmhmm."

"Listen, guys…"

"Yeah sis?"

"I think we should tell them." I thought some more and nodded.

"She's right, if we don't tell them, we're no better than whoever corrupted Shade, murderers by the refusal to give them any information to give them a fighting chance."

"Then we're in agreement?"

"I guess so."

"Oh uh, I've been thinking." I looked to Adam.

"Every deity except Shroud has had their own human servant, supposedly, Paeonis' servant went on to have children some time before we became servants to the deities."

"And?"

"The fact that Edge has the powers he does is remarkable, it's not really a semblance, but more like our powers, I think he even hasn't unlocked his true semblance yet."

"I see what you're saying," said Nick, "You're suggesting that Edge is that servant's heir?"

"Exactly, he even has one of Paeoniis' holy weapons." We thought on this for a minute, then Nick and Adam soon headed back to our dorm, while I stayed with Ivy.

"So… yeah… you've got two brothers who could try to kill me if we go back to dating again."

"Yeah but, that's just family for you."

"I guess," I said, "About Shade, I'm sure there's a way, a way to help him." Ivy nodded and put her head on my shoulder.

"What do you say we pick up where we left off?" I smiled and put my arm around her, and held her for a moment as we sat under the moonlight. We retired to our rooms for the night, as I came to my bed, I found Percy on my bed, who looked at me for a moment, yawned, and curled up on my pillows.

"You and me both little guy, you and me both…" I quickly drifted off, and finally felt somewhat relaxed.


	5. Last Gambit The Chained Warrior of Light

**A/N: Hey everybody, Flame the Dark Knight here, and here's another chapter of CAIN the legend of Remnant, I hope you all enjoy, and when you finish reading this chapter, there's a popularity poll on my page, and I'd love it if you guys and girls out there leave a review. Thanks Everybody! Oh and the Adam here has no relation at all to the Faunus of course, for those of you who just skipped to here, or maybe haven't figured that ou yet. Enjoy!**

* * *

Adam's POV:

I woke to the dog flushing the toilet. No, I didn't say that wrong, the dog actually flushed the toilet, then washed his paws. Wow dogs have gotten smart in a thousand years. The little guy came back into our room, and claimed Rowan's bed, since he lay on the floor sound asleep. Everyone woke up soon after I, and we headed down to the cafeteria. After everyone was done, they reported back to their mentor for intense training, no classes. With the recent attacks, the kingdoms had declared a state of emergency, and all students had to be ready for war.

My teammates looked to each other and we knew that now was as good of a time as any other, so we gathered in the hospital room where RWBY and JNPR were, and asked Ozpin come too. "When we woke up from our comas, each of us had our memories restored, some of it's a little… confusing, you may want to sit down." I looked around and sighed. "Ugh, where do we begin…" It took a while for us to tell our story, we often had to revisit some things to clarify what happened and why.

"..."

"..." We got the same silence across the room.

"That makes you sound like one of those people who come to your door to talk about religion."

"It's quite true Juane, it's people like us who are responsible for a lot of things on Remnant."

"Like what?"

"Ever heard of the Seasonal Maidens? The old man was a servant of Paeoniis," Connor looked to Edge, "And potentially your ancestor."

"Whoa, say that again? Did you just say I'm related to some mythological guy like that?"

"We're almost certain," I said, "When another servant is taken in by one of the lords, they create a weapon of Mythyrian Iron for their use. Thing is, the Weapon can only be used by the person it was meant for or a blood relative, it may also be passed down from master to apprentice, but Mythyrian Iron is odd, it chooses its own wielder at times."

"And Crocea Mors? My Grandfather forged it."

"He was lucky to find it, the Iron, like I said earlier, is scattered across Remnant from an age old war."

"... And these Deities you mentioned?"

"Well how the hell do you think dust gets its power? They bestowed their own power across Remnant to keep humanity alive, last I checked, my boss Ignis loved you guys, his favorite show was Game of Remnant, followed closely by Survivor: Remnant."

"So we're… a television show?"

"Pretty much, only thing that they didn't like were how many… adult films were on, oh and the ads, whole lot of those."

"That's disgusting."

"No no no, watching a guy get ripped in half by an Ursa, kill said Ursa, and crawl back to his legs to try and put himself together is disgusting, the other thing is just inappropriate."

"That was an old horror movie called Man vs. Grim. Not pretty."

"Good lord, no wonder Shade went insane!"

"Okay, A. Lords, plural, B. Shade went mad for different reasons. Said reasons are unknown to us though.

"...I'm not quite sure if I want to believe you, though the evidence does pile up a bit…"

"By the way," said Ivy, "The thing with the moon? Not us, that was the Wyvern. Some of your Natural wonders though, yeah, I'll take credit for that massive glacier up North."

"The Triple Volcano."

"The cave that's in those self help commercials, people go in, and come out changed."

I looked to Nick. "What the hell was Custos thinking with a Cave of Penance? I may or may not have split a mountain with a bolt of lightning. Had to open it up so the miners there could dig and support their families."

"Wow… All that was you? What about the Great Fissure? Or the lake on top of a cup shaped mountain?"

"Dusk and Widow, before they went cuckoo." Everyone seemed to think on what we said, then Weiss brought out the words that stung.

"I'm not even sure we can trust you, you're related to that Shade guy who killed Carrie and almost Ruby, you're telling me he doesn't even have control over himself while he murders innocent people?! How do we know you aren't spies or something or work with them?! How do we know what you just said wasn't a lie?"

"Dammit, I'd hoped it wouldn't come to it," said Connor, "Can you do a mind wipe Nick? I'm a little rusty." Nick shook his head.

"Ms. Schnee, you can hardly call yourself any better, nor can most of your family. As Servant to Lord Custos, I am more the qualified of serving Penitence here, meaning those unworthy in his truth scale would be obliterated unless he or I see redemption within them, part of that power he gave me means I can see your souls, none here have been corrupted."

"I trust them," whispered Ruby, she spoke up and repeated herself. "I trust them without that, If they wanted to kill us, couldn't Nick have just stopped keeping us in stasis and let us bleed out back then?"

"Why would they have helped us back then when we didn't even know them? They could have easily ran off when the Goliaths came, and we'd be dead." Soon they all seemed to come into agreement, asked a few more questions, and we had solidified the truth of the world.

Ozpin stepped forward. "Is there any hope in fighting Shade and this, Shroud?"

"There is, we can help find the Mythyrian Iron deposits, but we'll have to move fast, If Shade gets his hands on any more, we're screwed."

"Connor's right, there's only one reason my brother would ravage such a small village with the immense force he used, He likely knew it was in the Earth thanks to Dusk's Earthen abilities."

"How will you track the Iron?"

"I can use my soul sight to find it based on the power of the lords it lets off, and all that metal in the ground makes a great lightningrod to Adam's lightning in particular, similar way to mine."

"It's like they call out to us, we can all track the Iron, it's just easier for them and Dusk."

"Then it's settled, the four of you will lead expedition teams to find the Iron."

"Alright then, let's get ready to move out."

* * *

Meanwhile…

Shade's POV:

It was a year and a half since I woke up, and a month since exhaustion forced me asleep last. I don't even know how I managed to stay awake, perhaps it was with what little will I had left, or maybe hormones, to me, sleep had become a painful thing, a time that I loathed, and tried to avoid, because the dreams kept coming back every time it happened. I'd be forced to watch people live their lives, until something took it all away from them, and the fear, the hate, the anger drove those who had suffered into the monsters they so despised. That's when a part of me took over, a part I didn't know was there, and through his eyes he saw what he was doing as merciful, an attempt to end the suffering by ending life.

My friends and I were in prisons of our own bodies, and the wardens were dark souls, us, but not us. Every escape attempt led to more punishment, and it was painful, I had to watch myself kill, and harm the people I cared most about. I was a little light at the bottom of the ocean, and I began to vanish. I felt like a small child, unable to swim. Dark memories reenacted themselves in front of me, the burning of my village, Wilhelm sacrificing himself to save me, lives I could have saved, and those I took. After a thousand years I was almost nothing, my soul was fading, clinging to the good times. My friends, the times when I'd help take care of my siblings, the adventures we'd had together, the lives I had saved, even the more inappropriate times with Hecate.

"You proud of yourself?" I turned to see the other me. He had come to taunt me again.

"You're a monster!"

"We already knew that. Now you see, my master Shroud is very displeased in me, as am I. He was rather surprised that you managed to stop me from hurting your brother and sister any more. Clearly I've been too merciful." He snapped his fingers and shackles enclosed my wrists and ankles, and pulled me to the ground on my back, each seeming to try to pull me apart, and each searing my flesh.

"Someday I'll see you burn in hell!" He smirked and drew his sword, and stabbed my leg. I shrieked out in pain.

"Don't you get it? As far as I'm concerned this is hell, and you're the one who gets to suffer." As soon as he pulled the blade from my body my wounds healed, only to be inflicted over and over again. "Ah, this'll be fun!"

I'm but a fading light in an abyss, and soon I'll be no more.


	6. New Hopes, New Terrors

**A/N: I gotta say about chapters ten and eleven of RWBY, a) goddamnit I made the super killer dragon first, b) holy shit Evil Adam! Anyways I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**

Connor's POV:

We left who would go with who up to chance, we had an airship taking us where I directed, and I had Rowan with me. We jetted across the sky, I made a signal to descend and we circled down towards the desolate land. As we landed I looked to Rowan. "We're over an underground magma chamber, I can sense when steam vents erupt so follow me closely or end up like… that chicken. If I went alone I wouldn't bother, worry but..." I gestured to said random bird that stood over a vent, which erupted, the hot steam killing it and sending it flying onto the deck.

"Point taken."

"Come on." Finding the path was like going through a maze, but the men followed my lead very well, so nobody was steam cooked. We made it through the plain and came to a cave entrance. We headed down the winding, narrow cavern until we came to a wall. "Hold this for me." I handed Meteor Lotus to Rowan, who almost collapsed under the weight. I punched through the wall and exposed the rest of the cavern, which was wider and more intricate. I looked to the crewman who'd come with us. "Rowan and I can handle this, go back to the entrance."

"What are those?" He pointed to old runic writings.

"The reason I sent those men back. Those who seek treasure begone, or burn in the Hellfire. If thou seeks Ignis' Wings of Fire, show thine courage and strength and great power shall be bestowed." We started through the dungeon, careful to avoid traps and monsters.

"Really? It said 'thou' and 'thine'? You must have been real classy."

"Or maybe you guys became total slobs." I got a disapproving look from Rowan.

"You know, a Dragonoid Grimm attacked Beacon a few months back, do you think it had any relation to the Hell Kaiser Wyvern?"

"Yes and no. They're attempts at recreating its power."

"Huh?"

"A few thousand years before I was enlisted by Ignis, the first Grimm were born. There was the god of death, Grimm."

"So that's why they're called creatures of Grimm!?"

"Will you let me finish? He was loathed by the living, who were so simple minded as to openly insult him, but he did not punish mankind, for he knew they were also kind. You see the lords would have fun amongst themselves, but used to come to Remnant and… mingle… You know the decendants of some of their children as fauni. Point is, one woman saw death for its true beauty, and she and Grimm fell in love. When the villagers found whose child she had borne and cared for, she was torn limb from limb, right after she was hung. The people went on to burn her body."

"Why something that cruel?"

"People fear Death, see it as an absolute end, but according to Ignis, it was supposedly a paradise for the pure, and for the damned, it was endless pain."

"You say according to?"

"I can't exactly go to the Palace of the Dead. Grimm had hoped she would come to his palace, but as she had not been given a proper burial, she was stick in limbo, and to this day she remains there, for only those who are killed in battle can go to the palace without a proper burial, or at least a family member who cared for them. They threw her remains off a cliff, and planned to do the same with her child. Grimm came to hate humanity. Now I need you to do something hard."

"What?"

"You'll need to relearn a lot about Grimm. Your people are right about them feeding on flesh and negative emotions, but they do have souls, you see, Grimm created the Monsters out of the souls of the sinful, and sent them out into Remnant to kill us. They die when their task has been completed or they be captured, they are his pawns in a game of chess against humanity, and with them he put us in check. He was so intent on destroying humanity he went mad in grief over his lost love and pure rage consumed him. The Queen of the deities, Paeoniis, and her children, our patrons, fought him. That's why there's Mythyrian Iron here on Remnant, that's why the Grimm hunt humans, since even while shackled in the depths of Mythyria, he sicks them on you and continues to create them. During the war, he created certain Grimm in an attempt to counter Paeoniis, but each was but a weak imitation of each deity."

"...He was partly right, though, to be so filled with rage, but all of humanity doesn't deserve to die."

"Mmhmm." We traveled through the dungeon a bit further, and sprung a trap, but thankfully the people a thousand years ago hadn't left the snakes in the trap any food.

"Hey look!" There were pools of magma around a path. There were several large chests on the other side of the room, each seeming to call out to me. Thank my luck though, it wasn't the only thing calling out to me. Something had been living down here, likely feeding off of the energy of the metal, it had massive limbs and claws, and had a massive set of jaws, its scales shone off of the lava and, it bellowed and rushed me, I unfolded one of Meteor Lotus' blades and slashed, though the monster hissed and backed off.

"Back off Rowan, this thing won't be an easy kill." I unlocked my sword's other blade and spun it, getting the creature to back off a bit more, more serpentine heads came from it's shoulders and hissed at us. The leftmost head snapped at me, making a feint while another wrapped itself around my arm and tried biting my face, but I started strangling it so it would stop. I had dropped Meteor Lotus during the entanglement. I kicked it in the gut as it tried to tear me apart. Its middle head hissed and I could sense heat collecting in its body. We both spewed fire at each other, and I made a few more punches to its body. It made a coughing hiss and rushed me again. A swift blow sent him straight into a cavern wall, and he fell into a magma pool. I picked up Meteor Lotus and stood for a moment. The creature jumped from the pit, scales and flesh melting, but not fully killed due to its fire resistance. I made a wide slash with Meteor Lotus, then spun my blade around and stabbed it in the heart. The first half fell back into the lava while the second tried crawling its way to me, determined to kill me, but soon died. I threw the half of the carcass on my sword into the lava.

"That wasn't so bad, looks like the lizard just couldn't take the heat."

"No, just, no, next time you're going into the lava if you keep with the terrible one-liners."

"I'll keep note of that." We made a few trips to the airship carrying the chests, then opened them.

I opened up a nearby chest, and touched the metal inside to check it. My head felt a sudden rush, and things seemed to go black for a moment. A red fire ignited before me, and formed into the shape of a man with wings, with iron plates across his body and wings. There was no was to describe how his face looked, like the rest of his body, wreathed in flame, darker flames make a skeletal silouhette, and he showed a wicked grin. "Hey boss."

"Connor! How long has it been, a millenia?"

"About." Ignis looked down at me and laughed, he created a sword of flame and slashed from the side, I pulled Meteor Lotus and guarded, but was sent flying into the abyss and Ignis grabbed me.

"The others were right, you have lost power, you used to be able to not even budge with a hit like that."

"Guess I'll have to hit the grind."

"Nor can you materialize your armor?"

"Nope, you forget, we never could like Shade." Our armor was a full release of our power, taking in power in a physical form, from as many sources one wished, and granted physical and and ability boosts, such as Shade gaining enough strength to rival mine (without it I could crush his arm) or move as fast as Ivy. "We only won because they were mentally broken."

"I've got faith in you kid. So do the others." My friends materialized next to me, and soon their patrons appeared as well. Fulgur "The Bolt" held a massive spear and wore silver and blue dragonic armor, being nearby him made me smell the air before a thunderstorm, and partly of something that had just been cooked by lightning. Contrary to how well Ivy and I got along, Glacies and Ignis loathed each other, much more than your average brothers. While they may have once gotten along, and still worked as a powerful duo, they'd pissed each other off with a love triangle. Of course. I would occasionally get the feeling Glacies didn't like me either, though I could never figure out why. He wore wolf skins and had a dagger at his belt, his skin was pale and his face cold. Lastly, there was Custos, who wore gold and silver armor, and a cape that seemed to give him a lion's mane.

"War is breaking out, and in this dire time the four of you need to surpass your limits, as do your new friends if life wants to survive."

"And how are we supposed to do that?"

"I can't say for sure, perhaps it may be an emotional challenge you must overcome, it's like how humans use such a small amount of their brains capacity, you need to remove that limiter for a fighting chance, the training that you're currently doing will get you there in a few decades, so, not soon enough."

"So take it up all the way, got it. You got a place in mind? I'd rather not pay for rebuilding Vale."

"You remember Mt. Travail Nick?" Custos showed us an image of the location, with a tall climb to the peak, whose plateau resembled a clock.

"Yeah, time there is out of sync due to the heavy power used there during the war you guys fought a few thousand years back. A day there is like… maybe three hours elsewhere?"

"Exactly, so a day in the normal world is about a week there."

"That could work."

"It must," said Fulgur. "Our time together ends here for now, battle is upon us, though I am sure we will meet again soon."

Ignis of course got the last word. "And when this is all over, we need to rediscuss your insurance benefits!" Everything went black and I found myself back on the airship.

"What was that all about, you zoned out for a few minutes there."

"Ugh, I had a little reunion with my boss, everything is going according to plan, but I have to renew my insurance plan."

"Wait… insurance?"

"Yeah, I get a great pay with overtime, time and a half over 40 hours and double over 60. My last plan covered the destruction of almost anything, a visit to Paeoniis healers, and then a great place to live. Apartments to them, mansions to you."

"Damn." Thankfully the airships were fast and got us back to Beacon in a few hours, I got on a holo message with the rest of my team to check on them.

"Holy crap, what happened to your clothes?!" Adam had a few hole burned into his clothing, and this white jacket was charred.

"Danielle attacked a Lightning Whelk's shell, and you know I can't be hurt by electricity, can't say the same for my clothes though." I was surprised we hadn't figured out why he wasn't fried like his clothes, none of us could be harmed by our own elements.

"Now about that trip to Travail…"

"It's a long trip," said Nick, "We'll need a lot of food for that and while we're there, but thankfully there's still animals there for hunting."

"How long do you think it will take to be ready for the trip?"

"Minimum… a week and a half for all the provisions and gear."

"Damn, it'll be a while then."

"Hmm… We need to think for a while." Ivy was the first to sign off, closely followed by Adam, something clearly on their minds, and I had a pretty good guess too. Shade, and what he was doing.

* * *

Elsewhere:

Dark Shade's POV:

I tossed the White Fang Member aside and kicked another to the feet of the leader. "I'll offer you the deal again, I pay you quite genorously or I use force. Either way you work for me." He placed his hand on his blade's handle, but didn't draw. "I'll give you the first strike."

He made a quick slash at my neck though I grabbed his blade with a gauntlet, and choked him with the other. I threw him into the ground and put my foot to his neck. "I'm only going to offer the deal one last time, I'd rather not kill somebody as skilled as you, that slash would normally take a limb or head." He tapped out and I gestured to some of my men, who brought a heavy chest to my side. I opened it revealing various precious metals and jewels. "This is just a fraction of what we have for you." The next objective was complete, our strength and numbers doubled, our forces would soon be ready for war.

 **A/N: A short little number with Dark Shade, there to show what he was doing, and to show what level of power he's at. I mean seriously, theres no better way to do it than to show him throw around perhaps the most dangerous character in the series like a ragdoll. Point is, Shade is now more badass. And I can't believe all the arm puns are already across the internet, goddamnit evil Adam, why must you be so evil?!**


End file.
